The Frostians

Chapter 19

Morning came softly, the sun’s light breaking over the horizon, casting golden rays over the mountainside. The night had been a rare moment of peace, but as the fire’s embers began to fade, reality slowly crept back into their minds. The journey was far from over, and questions that had been buried beneath the heat of battle and exhaustion now demanded answers.

Kristian stirred first, his muscles aching from the previous day’s fight, but his mind already alert. Tyr sat nearby, watching the horizon with a gaze that seemed to pierce through time itself. His expression was unreadable, but the weight of centuries pressed heavily on his broad shoulders.

Alysandra, stretching beside Kristian, caught the distant look in Tyr’s eyes. “He’s been like that for hours,” she whispered softly. “I can only imagine what’s going through his mind.”

Kristian nodded, rising to his feet and making his way to where Tyr sat. The god didn’t move as Kristian approached, his eyes still locked on the distance.

“Are you ready to talk?” Kristian asked, his voice careful but firm.

Tyr’s gaze slowly shifted, his expression still guarded, but there was a flicker of something—perhaps sorrow, perhaps resignation. “I suppose you deserve the truth,” he said at last, his voice deep and steady, though it carried the weight of untold years of suffering. “You freed me, after all.”

Alysandra joined them, taking a seat on a nearby rock. Mimir, still perched behind Kristian’s hip, stirred in his pouch. His usual sardonic tone was absent, replaced by a solemnity that felt foreign coming from the disembodied head.

Tyr’s eyes flickered briefly to Mimir before settling on Kristian and Alysandra. “There is much you need to know about the gods and the state of the realms,” he began, his voice heavy with purpose. “But to understand why I was imprisoned, you must first understand the madness that grips Odin—my father.”

Kristian frowned. He had heard whispers of Odin’s power, of his dominion over Asgard, but he had never imagined the All-Father to be anything less than a calculated ruler. “Odin?” he echoed. “Madness?”

Tyr gave a bitter smile. “Madness comes in many forms, and Odin’s is the madness of foresight. He is consumed by his desire to stop Ragnarok—the end of all things, the destruction of the gods. He has seen it, over and over, in his visions. Every step he takes, every decision he makes, is to try and rewrite the fate he fears.”

Alysandra’s brow furrowed. “And what does that have to do with your imprisonment?”

Tyr sighed, his large hands flexing as though he could still feel the weight of the chains that had bound him for so long. “I once believed in Odin’s cause. I was a loyal son, the god of war, entrusted with maintaining order in the realms. But the more I saw of Odin’s methods, the more I realized that his obsession had turned him into something else. He would do anything—sacrifice anyone—to delay Ragnarok, to bend fate to his will.”

Kristian’s jaw clenched. “And you refused to follow his orders.”

Tyr nodded slowly. “I did. I saw the destruction he was causing, the lives he was willing to sacrifice in his quest for control. He believed that by imprisoning those who posed a threat to his vision of the future, he could stop the inevitable. But there is no stopping Ragnarok. There is only delaying it. I challenged him, and for that, I was betrayed.”

There was a long pause, the gravity of Tyr’s words sinking in. The god’s face was hard, his eyes reflecting a deep pain that came not from battle wounds but from a betrayal that cut far deeper.

“And Mimir?” Kristian asked, turning slightly to glance at the pouch where the disembodied head lay. “Why was he imprisoned?”

Mimir’s voice, though quieter than usual, still held its sharp edge. “Odin’s fear made him paranoid,” he said, his tone bitter. “I was once his trusted advisor, the keeper of wisdom. But the more I warned him of the dangers of tampering with fate, the more he saw me as a threat. I knew too much, and in the end, he decided that even knowledge could be a weapon against him.”